Measuring and assessing beef quality and sensory traits for retailers and consumers

ByDerek A. Griffing, Christy L. Bratcher, Auburn University, USA

The ‘experience qualities’ of food products are those that can only be verified after
purchase and consumption (Ford, 1988). Therefore, verifying experience qualities in
products prior to consumption proves to be a challenging obstacle that the beef industry
faces. The three primary factors associated with identifying the experience quality of
beef are tenderness, juiciness and flavour (Neely, 1988), otherwise known collectively as
‘palatability’. In the 2001 National Beef Quality Audit, five different sectors of the industry
were asked to define eating satisfaction (Igo, 2013). The most common terms associated
were as follows:

1. Tenderness (63.8% of government and allied industries, 44.1% of feeders, 65.4% of
packers, 52.1% of food service operators and 66.7% of retailers);

2. Flavour (57.5% of government and allied industries, 53.8% of packers, 62.5% of food
service operators and 70% of retailers).